Sony claim 100Mbit fibre optic PSOne/2 network

It seems that Sony's ambitions to dazzle the world (or at least Japan) with a usable fibre optic network for PlayStation and PlayStation 2 users is getting closer to realisation. Yesterday, Ken Kutaragi, president of SCE, joined the general session at the SGI Solution Forum 2001 and gave a keynotes address on the subject of "Broadband Revolution and the World of Evolving Computer Entertainment". During the speech, Mr. Kutaragi said that he expected "fiber-optic broadband Internet connections" to take off in Japan this year. "Once this environment, which enables 100-Megabit transmissions, is set, two-way broadband communications are sure to explode among PlayStation and PlayStation 2 users". He then continued to evangelise broadband connections to his audience. Maddeningly, Mr. Kutaragi neglected to elaborate on whether the 100Mbit figure was the total bandwidth to be shared between users, or whether the connection would be 100Mbit per individual, so it's a little hard to speculate on the system's success or failure at this stage. However, it was reported late last month that tests of the fibre-optic network which offered approximately 3Mbit of bandwidth per user were underway. Either way, as we said in our article on the subject, some of Sony's ambitions for the system won't be possible unless they address the issue of individual bandwidth, supply and of course contention. Mr. Kutaragi feels that "this broadband capability that will allow the world to come together as one," although no trials of the fibre-optic system have been scheduled for any territory outside of Japan.

Source - Famitsu